The United States has the technological capability to establish a robust space transportation, habitation and logistical support infrastructure in the first decade of the new century. This infrastructure will benefit all three sectors of the U.S. space program—commercial, civil and national defense—by providing shared capabilities that will improve the safety, reliability and affordability of all three sectors' primary space operations. This paper proposes specific technical approaches for establishing such an integrated infrastructure. The proposed infrastructure includes: reusable launch vehicles (RLV) for "airline-like" access to low Earth orbit (LEO); large spaceports in LEO capable of providing safe habitation for 100–150 people; and an integrated network of logistical support capabilities utilizing these RLVs and spaceports. The need for integrated planning to define and develop this common infrastructure is discussed.


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    Title :

    Air Force, NASA and Commercial Cooperation in Establishing a Robust Space Infrastructure


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Sixth ASCE Specialty Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space ; 1998 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States


    Published in:

    Space 98 ; 693-701


    Publication date :

    1998-04-21




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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